Takao Aoki
, presumably signing autographs.]] Takao Aoki (Japanese: 青木たかお, Aoki Takao) is a Japanese mangaka, best known as the creator of the Beyblade manga which was later adapted into the anime series, Beyblade, Beyblade: V-Force and Beyblade: G-Revolution. About Mangaka career Takao Aoki's most well-known work is Beyblade ''(''Bakuten Shoot Beyblade), which became a franchise around children who battle with spinning tops. He also made "Bakufu Slash; Kizna", "A War Story of Metal Walker", "Mini-4WD Fighter V" and many other manga. Most of Takao's manga revolve around video-games or toys; his works are highly liked. *''Beyblade: Based on Beigoma, a Japanese spinning top game. *''Suicide! Shonentai Zoids: Considered to be Takao Aoki's most earliest work, it was based upon Zoids, another Japanese toy by Takara Tomy that focused on animal model-kits. Its first volume was released on May 1989 with the second releasing in the month after. *''Bakufuu Slash! Kizna Arashi: Based on a PlayStation 2 video game of the same name. In this game, a boy named "Arashi" (who has a minor resemblance to Naruto of the Naruto anime series) has a blue dragon as a monster partner which he controls with an item called the "Demon Seal Nail". Arashi has an "element" known as "Wind" as he wears a white cloth on his arm as proof of his element. His rival is "Enn", who has a dragon named "Blade" and has a fire element with a flame on his arm as proof of his element. His girlfriend is named Mika. This is an SCEJ game only released in Japan. The official site is http://www.jp.playstation.com/scej/title/kizna/index.html *''A War Story of Metal Walker: Based on a computer game of the same. *''Mini-4WD Fighter V: Based on a car racing toy/game, ''Mini-4WD Fighter V. His other manga include Genie Hero Wataru 2 Mashin Development Daikessen, Spirit World Classroom and Slash! Kizuna Mr. Malik Super Magic Tanteidan. He also worked (in some form), in the development of Kamen Rider ZO.http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9D%92%E6%9C%A8%E3%81%9F%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8A Takao Aoki's most recent manga published is known as "Exceptionally Bizarre Story, X-Zone" (世にも奇怪な物語　Ｘゾーン) or simply "X-Zone". It revolves around the "X-Zone", a "fear room" that floats between the world of darkness and reality and tells the story of persons that have suffering in despair in there as a result of being missing, in a genre of mystery. Four volumes have been released, with the first released on August 22, 2007http://www.shogakukan.co.jp/comics/detail/_isbn_9784091403551 and the latest volume on August 27, 2010http://www.shogakukan.co.jp/comics/detail/_isbn_9784091410894. Personal life Takao Aoki was born in the Utsunomiaya, Tochigi Prefecture and has been working for Shogakukan, a Japanese publishing company for almost all of this manga works. Unverified sources state that he went to "Chiyoda Art School" and took a special course in manga. His current residence is supposedly, Kamakura, Tokyo. He had once made a public appearance at the BEYBLADE World Championships 2004, which was held on August 17, 2004 at Times Square, New York in the United States. There, it seems he signed autographs during the event to fellow, Beyblade fans. His interests include sleeping, driving, movies, dogs, cats and his pet hamster, Konta, as well as construction and renovation television programs, recently.http://sakura2factory.web.fc2.com/profile.htmlhttp://sakura2factory.web.fc2.com/photo.html Trivia *Tyson Granger's Japanese name (木ノ宮タカオ, Kinomiya Takao), is named after Takao Aoki. References External Links *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takao_Aoki Wikipedia Takao Aoki article] *[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=5929 ANN Takao Aoki page] *[http://www.mangaupdates.com/authors.html?id=2673 Baka-Updates Manga Takao Aoki bio] *[http://sakura2factory.web.fc2.com/ Takao Aoki's official website] Category:Male Category:Real Life People